ver with great contempt for the rustic
minds around her, could have settled here in this lonely inn, with
only the waves for company, and a boorish husband who slaved all day in
turning a potter's wheel at Watchett. And what was the meaning of the
emblem set above her doorway, a very unattractive cat sitting in a
ruined tree?

'However, I had not very long to strain my curiosity; for when she found
out who I was, and how I held the King's commission, and might be called
an officer, her desire to tell me all was more than equal to mine
of hearing it. Many and many a day, she had longed for some one both
skilful and trustworthy, most of all for some one bearing warrant from
a court of justice. But the magistrates of the neighbourhood would have
nothing to say to her, declaring that she was a crack-brained woman, and
a wicked, and even a foreign one.

'With many grimaces she assured me that never by her own free-will would
she have lived so many years in that hateful country, where the sky for
half the year was fog, and rain for nearly the other half. It was so
the very night when first her evil fortune brought her there; and so no
doubt it would be, long after it had killed her. But if I wished to know
the reason of her being there, she would tell me in few words, which I
will repeat as briefly.

'By birth she was an Italian, from the mountains of Apulia, who had
gone to Rome to seek her fortunes, after being badly treated in some
love-affair. Her Christian name was Benita; as for her surname, that
could make no difference to any one. Being a quick and active girl,
and resolved to work down her troubles, she found employment in a large
hotel; and rising gradually, began to send money to her parents. And
here she might have thriven well, and married well under sunny skies,
and been a happy woman, but that some black day sent thither a rich and
noble English family, eager to behold the Pope. It was not, however,
their fervent longing for the Holy Father which had brought them to St.
Peter's roof; but rather their own bad luck in making their home too
hot to hold them. For although in the main good Catholics, and pleasant
receivers of anything, one of their number had given offence, by the
folly of trying to think for himself. Some bitter feud had been among
them, Benita knew not how it was; and the sister of the nobleman who
had died quite lately was married to the rival claimant, whom they all
detested. It was something